Markets
Crypto Markets Trade Lower as Institutions Unload Millions in Bitcoin
Institutional investors sold $600 million worth of digital assets last week.
The cryptocurrency market opened on Monday with a small but widespread sell-off.
Blue-chip cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) dropped 2% and 2.6%, respectively. XRP it is the only token in the top ten to record positive price action, jumping 5% on the day.
XRP Price
Most tokens fell less than 10%, with notable exceptions such as ZKsync, which fell 20% after airdropping 17.5% of its token offering and debuting with a market capitalization of US$900 million.
According to CoinShares’ latest Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly reportLast week was the second worst for institutions in 2024. Large entities offloaded $600 million in digital assets, “likely due to a more aggressive than expected FOMC meeting, leading investors to reduce their exposure to digital assets. fixed supply”.
Last week’s bearishness by institutional investors was focused almost entirely on Bitcoin, wrote James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares. BTC was the only digital asset that recorded outflows, with more than US$620 million sold.
Ethereum continues its upward trajectory with the fourth consecutive week of accumulation. Likely spurred by the inevitable launch of spot Ethereum ETFs, institutions have purchased $13 million worth of ETH in the past seven days, bringing the annual total to $94 million.
Smaller tokens have seen negligible outflows and inflows from large entities, with Solana seeing $200,000 in outflows – the only asset other than Bitcoin to be sold.
Experts advance in predicting the launch date of the ETH ETF
Ethereum continues to make headlines as the market prepares for an imminent spot ETF approval.
Bloomberg Analyst Eric Balchunas he wrote On June 14, his team advanced the date for the Ethereum ETF instrument to be available for trading to July 2. Balchunas had previously predicted July 4, although SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said on June 13 that the product should be live until the end of summer.
According to Balchunas, the SEC sent comments to potential ETF issuers on their S-1 filings late last week. The comments, he wrote, were “fairly light, nothing major” and requested responses within a week.
“There is a good chance they will work to declare them in effect next week and remove them before the holiday weekend,” Balchunas added.